KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS
Tom Harper
Medieval Outsiders
> a Byzantine "unveiler of mysteries"
> a woman physician in a world of men
> various odd fanatics among the Crusaders, including Peter the Hermit
> various odd heretics among the Crusaders, including the priestess Sarah
> a Sunni Muslim swordsman who seems to want the Crusaders to win against the predominantly Shi'ite host they face at Antioch
In his first Demetrios Askiates novel, The Mosaic of Shadows, Tom Harper showed us the First Crusade through the eyes of the Emperor and people of Byzantium/Constantinople. (For the background of both that book and this new one, see the review of the first one.) Now, two years later, the army of the First Crusade, consisting mainly of French and Italian-Norman knights and foot-soldiers and their whores, augmented by the remnant of Peter the Hermit's Peasant's Crusade, has been stuck outside Antioch for a year, during which time they have ravaged the countryside around and as winter draws to an end the survivors are diseased, demoralised and all but starving.
Then, when all hope has gone, and a great army of Turks and other Shi'ite Muslims is coming over the horizon, they enter Antioch by means of a trick and massacre the inhabitants. Only to find themselves besieged, and in worse plight than before.
History tells us that they survived, and went on to conquer Jerusalem, but this book shows us the crusaders when they hit rock bottom and faced all the difficult questions. This was the first crusade, remember. No one had ever done anything like this before. No one really knew whether God was angry with them or was testing them, whether God frowned on or delighted in the slaughter of unbelievers, whether God helped those who kept their faith pure or their swords sharp.
And in the midst of all this death, a man is murdered. So what? we might ask and Askiates does ask just that. But this death is different.
It has to be said, though, that the investigation of the murder takes second place to the story of the seige of Antioch and the eventual defeat of Kerbogha and his host. Not recommended if you are looking for a typical "medieval mystery" detective story, with Askiates as the investigator, but highly recommended if, like me, you are interested in what happened on the First Crusade between Constantinople and Jerusalem. For me, "Antioch" was what happened in The Jester; now this book, this story, has given me a fresh perspective on it.
MBG
